#39 Being a Jury Member at the German Design Awards - Key Takeaways
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How does it look like when you are a junior member of the German Design Award? Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Future of UX podcast. I'm your host Patricia Reines and today we are diving into the topic of, I would say, a little bit different but definitely super, super, super interesting topic, which is

Yeah, recently I had the honor of being a jury member at the German Design Awards and I got a lot of questions about the whole procedure, how it was and I want to use this episode to talk a little bit about the experience itself but also the learnings that I took out of this experience and out of the two days being a juror there so you can hopefully also use these takeaways for your own work and for your own life.

so i already mentioned that this podcast will be a little bit different than the usual podcast episodes i would say this episode is a little bit more like maybe a little bit like a facetime call that you would have with a friend or a voice message that you get on whatsapp where you ask like how actually um how was the german design award how was it actually being a euro so

To get started from the very beginning, before I'm diving into my own learnings, I want to tell you a little bit about how everything happened. So they actually asked me, I would say in April or March, so pretty early, if I would like to be a jury member from the German Design Awards. And of course I said yes. I felt really honored to be a part of that. I know the German Design Awards for

a really long time. I mean, I'm following what is happening there. So I felt really, really honored actually to be a part of that and also to experience that and to be someone who judges the work there. So I will get started by sharing a bit about how the two days went by, because I know that this is something many of you are really, really interested in.

So last week all Euros met in Frankfurt and reviewed the submissions for two days, so for Thursday and Friday. In total we had 40 Euros from very different fields.

product design, branding, architecture, but also UX/UI design, digital design, 3D, metaverse, AI design. So a lot of very different fields that really came together. It was super exciting.

And the evening before we actually started, we all met already in a bar in Frankfurt and got to know each other a little bit. Many of the Euros had been there for several years, so they already knew each other. I was totally new. I didn't know anyone. And I just was really excited to meet the other Euros.

And I would say the evening was really nice. So I came there, I didn't know anyone, but I got the chance to chat with a lot of the other Euros and talked about their work, what they're doing, what they're excited about. And I felt really inspired leaving actually pretty early because we are all pretty hyped for the next two days. So I think we all want to be, yeah, recharged. So we all went back really early the first evening.

And the next day, and by the way, we all stayed in a hotel in Frankfurt. I didn't mention that, but we were all in the same hotel pretty close to the fair, which was the location where we actually did the work. So the next day, of course, we started with some breakfast and then we all met up in the lobby.

Like I mentioned, I didn't know a lot of the Euros there, so I tried to introduce myself to the other G-members, talk with them and get to know the other Euros. Some I already knew from LinkedIn, but I feel like if you meet someone in person, this is always like a very different story.

And then we walked together to the fair. There was a really large conference room on the exhibition grounds where, you know, we could already see name tags. So we already got like a seat. And of course, there were like food and drinks and coffee. We all got a tablet for the voting system.

And I must say, at the point where we arrived at the fair or at the conference room, I was really excited and really excited about the day and the judging itself and also the discussions. And when we arrived there, we had some time to relax a little bit and talk with the other jury members. And what was really interesting is that I met a speaker from the Photopea.

Because some, like for those of you who are following me on Instagram and on LinkedIn, know that I did a talk about chat GPT and AI tools at the Photopia in Hamburg the week earlier. And at the same event, there was another speaker and I actually wanted to chat with her because I really admire her work and what she's doing. She's working for a Berlin-based company.

a startup they're doing really cool metaverse projects i um already had like or i already worked with them but it was in the past so i definitely wanted to chat with her and she was in the um um she was also a jury member so we got a chance to chat a little bit longer and also talked about the metaverse and where the uh where she sees some potential it was definitely very very interesting yeah but after a little bit of like chit chat and getting to know the other euros

we started first with like I would say like an introduction by the German design team Rad für Formgebung they started with like a basic introduction about what's coming the next two days and just like a basic introduction and each of each one of us also introduced themselves so that everyone knew who everyone was and then we

got together in our groups. All of the URI members were divided into smaller groups. I was responsible for the digital department with two other persons. And we focused on the digital submissions, so mostly websites, I would say, so digital topics.

So we got down to work and went through all the submissions in our area first alone. So each one of us focused on all the different submissions on our own and then we discussed them later on. We needed to judge them based on different categories. It was like

sustainability, overall design concept, usability, design guidelines and I think innovation was the fifth one. I would say it was a lot of fun, especially the discussions were pretty interesting because of course we had maybe a little bit different expertise in different areas so I really enjoyed the discussions especially talking about the different

submissions and then also selecting the gold winner because for each category we needed to select a gold winner. It was a really inspiring day. In between there were also lunch time and some time to walk a little bit around and check out the other submissions.

because I was responsible for the digital and the web experiences. But I already mentioned there are different other categories like product design, for example, you know, like physical products. And I think this is pretty interesting to see those things because we had a whole like like

super huge room with all these submissions for also like product design they were like sofas there were lamps there were even like a bathtub or a shower so any kind of thing you can think of was there and already organized with descriptions and everything so that the different jury members could go through the different topics and judge them

And also I really enjoyed just like walking around there, having a look at the different submissions and seeing what's coming and how they're presenting their work and what kind of cool things are there. So it was like very exciting and also chatting with the other jury members for sure.

This was the first day, it was pretty intense, a lot of discussions, a lot of judging of course, but I'm doing that on a regular basis, so for me it's nothing totally different I would say. I'm having a look at a lot of designs on a day-to-day basis where I need to judge very quickly. So I felt that for me it was definitely not too difficult.

and after we agreed on our decision we all went to a restaurant and had a really nice evening at an I think Israeli restaurant in Frankfurt where we just like had a chance to connect to talk it was a lot of fun so a really nice evening to yeah have a little bit more like I would say personal connections with the other dream members I really enjoyed that

And the next day was a little bit more chilled. We already went through all the submissions, so the second day was mostly a greedy presenting what we agreed on. So each group needed to present their winners, their gold winners.

like prepare not a presentation but really prepare the different designs and explain why they have been chosen. We also did that and it was super interesting we also talked about the newcomers. There was as like a second jury only for the newcomers where they presented the potential newcomers for different categories and then we all needed to vote

for the winner. Although I must say, we don't know who actually is the winner for the newcomers only for what we voted on our own but not who actually won. So that will be pretty exciting. Overall, all the winners for the German Design Award will be announced in December I would say. So it's still some time. But pretty exciting. I must say a lot of really cool products and

Yeah, I'm really excited to see that some of them were like so innovative and very inspiring to see that. Also, I feel with a UX background, physical products are, you know, they're not too far away, I feel. But overall, I must say, being there as a UX professional, as a UX designer, makes me really happy because this also shows how important UX really is and that UX is something

everywhere and that it's a very very important part of design as well not only branding product design but UX is here and there and usability is so important so I feel really honored to be a part of that I enjoyed the two days for sure I had an amazing time and yeah be really I'm really grateful to be a part of that.

I must say through all the discussions with the other jury members and also the product that I've seen and the whole situation, I would say I definitely got some takeaways and I want to share them with you. So hopefully you also get some insights for your own work. So the first thing that I really got as a takeaway is the importance of storytelling in design.

One of the first things that really stuck with me was how storytelling has evolved from being like a nice to have to a must have. When people handed in their submissions, there were like a little subscription description of the product.

And it was so interesting to see how some people really mastered the storytelling part of their product. How they explained the problem that they are solving with the product and the solution that they are providing. So storytelling is so important. And I think it's really about waving a narrative that solves real world problems, right? Like we already have a lot of products. So it really is about...

products that are solving problems. So this is super interesting and then for me a super important takeaway to really get someone's attention. If it's a jury member, if it's a client, if it's a stakeholder, tell a story. Tell a story and really focus on the problem that something is solving. The second main takeaway for me was that sustainability is one of the most important things at the moment.

Sustainability and design was very high ranked also at the German Design Award. We talked a lot about that topic, not only in our jury work, I would say, but also when we chatted with each other and when we talked about the future of design. So sustainability is super important when we are thinking about any kind of products.

So especially for UX, I feel there is still a lot of things that we could do, a lot of things that we could learn, a very important future topic that we should definitely keep in mind on. And number three of my main takeaways is that it is so inspiring to really talk with other disciplines, you know, when you have this kind of like melting pot of expertise and

And for me, this definitely was the jury. Unfortunately, I don't get the chance to talk on a daily basis with architects and people who are doing like product design and chair design, furniture design, maybe branding, um,

you know, graphic design, poster design. And I think for me, it was super interesting to see how all these different perspectives and expertises really came together at one point. So for me, a takeaway was that I also need to make sure that I am spending enough time with people outside of the digital world, of the tech world, but with people who are from different design areas and disciplines to really get inspired and see how we could use

the ways how they are solving problems maybe in UX for example. Yes, design is a universal language I would say. So whether you're designing a website, the principles of good design remain the same. And I felt this is definitely also a really good takeaway.

so the german design award were really inspiring for me and um yeah i felt really honored to be a part of that i hope that i got you a little bit some kind of like a sneak peek into what happened the

two days if you have any questions or any insights or anything that you would like to share feel free to do that on my instagram because i'm also sharing some insights there some images as well so you can just share a comment if you want and let me know if there's anything that you would like to add or ask i am definitely there to answer your questions

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